Guest Post :Bid Adieu to These 5 Web Design Trends in 2013

Bid Adieu to These 5 Web Design Trends in 2013 New Year connotes to new beginnings, which means embracing new trends and shoving the old schools behind. The same philosophy is applicable in the web design arena as well. As we welcome the year 2013, it is time to bid adieu to age old design trends that became extremely popular in no time, but eventually derailed users from the conversion path. Many of these tends took off without any logical backing, for instance use of hashtags on Facebook. But popularity is not the only criterion that defines the effectiveness of a design trend. If you agree with the notion and planning to shove away one the design trends that you adapted just because ‘everyone is doing it’, then join the league. This post is dedicated to five such design trends that have surely defeated the purpose of web designing altogether.

 

 Take a look.

Rotating Banner on Homepage:

Earlier they just spooked you on retailer websites, but today rotating banner trend is catching up with almost every other website. You may argue that rotating banners let you display multiple messages but on contrary, ‘banner blindness’ caused by them can make your visitor miss out on anything and everything you have displayed on your website. Your banner is a hurdle in your visitor’s way. So, this year resolute to remove this conversion-feeding monster from your homepage.

Circuitous Web Design:

Designers are always on a spree to render a never seen before design which is highly creative and impeccable. They are always in the rush to create a design that is second to none. This, at times, makes them overlook web standards, thus compromising with user-experience and usability. But time and again it has been proved that successful websites are those that strike perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality. Make 2013 a year of clean and simple web design. Remember, simplicity is the best form of sophistication.

Never-Ending Forms:

Poking nose in someone’s personal life isn’t a good practice and the same ideology is applicable to your web portal as well. It is time to get rid of the bad habit of asking users to fill in all their personal details if they wish to get a product through your site or visit a particular segment. Lengthy forms are a big turn off. It is a proven fact that short forms reduce the friction offered to web conversion rate. Simply put, the fewer questions you ask, the more likely is the user to stay on your site. So trim down your web forms ASAP.

Premature CTA:

This trend has been on an upsurge lately. Websites that are otherwise designed in a professional manner, sometimes appear hurried up. They seem to forget that they need to begin with the base step before reaching the top of the ladder. Ensure that your calls to actions are in sync with the content on-page as well as compliment the conversion funnel they belong to. This New Year take a vow that you’re CTAs will be more relevant to customer needs, will comprehend customer’s buying process and will be used only at the right time.

Interstitial Messaging and Pop-Overs:

Imagine this: you have just landed on a web page, going through the content and suddenly an operators image pops out, asking you whether you like the article or not. Interrupted right? May be even irritated. It is practically impossible to keep a tab of the websites that have irked you in this manner over and over again. These pop-over are worst offenders especially when they appear seconds after the screen loads. The user hasn’t even explored the worth or relevance of the content yet. Try and minimize the use of these interrupters and if unavoidable, present them in a manner that they don’t obstruct user’s attention span.

Now that you have an overview of the worst web design trends that have proved to be offensive for so long, it is time to resolve them in the year 2013. Stay motivated, shed the old bad habits, and be eager to bring some good ones into your kitty. Believe it or not, it will be as much of a relief for you as for your visitor. 

 

Chris Miller

About the Guest Author:
Chris Miller is a web editor cum developer for a leading drupal development company. & provides concrete information about all open source CMS's. Hire drupal developers from Xicom for advanced drupal development services.